Tag: life onboard

According to Global Marine Census A team of international scientists is urging measures to protect the Earth's most vast and uncharted territory: the deep sea. The deep sea and its denizens are already facing threats from human activities such as resource exploitation and global warming. Experts say even more threats lie ahead and they warn that while the deep sea environment may be "out of sight and out of mind," the consequences of its destruction could be far-reaching and irreversible.The Census of Marine Life was a scientific survey of the flora and fauna in the world's oceans, including five deep-sea ecosystems. Cindy Van Dover, Professor of Biological Oceanography at Duke University, explains the purpose of the Census."It was designed to explore what creatures live in the sea, what are they doing there, what were they like in the past, what will they be like in the future," said Van Dover. "It was an effort to bring an international community together to ask questions, where there were synergies that could be developed from working with people from different countries different assets, and begin to build our understanding of what lives in the sea and what will live in the sea."During the ...

About 30% of Hawai'i's marine species are endemic The question of why there are so many species in the sea and how new species form remains a central question in marine biology. Below the waterline, about 30% of Hawai'i's marine species are endemic - being found only in Hawai'i and nowhere else on Earth - one of the highest rates of endemism found worldwide. But where did this diversity of species come from? Hawai'i is famous for its adaptive radiations (the formation of many species with specialized lifestyles from a single colonist) above the water line.Still, spectacular examples of adaptive radiations such as Hawaiian honeycreeper birds and fruit flies are not found in Hawaiian waters. Marine species were thought to colonize Hawaii and eventually diverge into an isolated native species, but were doomed to an evolutionary "dead end" with no further specialization and speciation.Dr. Chris Bird and fellow researchers at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), however, have shown that Hawai'i hosts three limpets (cone shaped marine snails, locally known as 'opihi) that defy classification as dead-enders.The standard explanation for three species of 'opihi is that Hawai'i was independently colonized three times; however, using DNA, fossil, and geologic evidence, ...

Marine life facing mass extinction Reflective aerosols would be sent into space under a series of radical "geo-engineering" measures being considered by the UN climate science body to tackle climate change, leaked documents disclose.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) papers, leaked ahead of a key meeting in Peru next week, outline the series of techniques in which scientists hope will manipulate the world's climate to reduce carbon emissions.Among the ideas proposed by a group of 60 leading scientists from around the world, including Britain, include producing "lighter coloured" crops to reflect sunlight, blasting aerosol "mirrors" into the stratosphere and suppressing cirus clouds.Other suggestions include spraying sea water into clouds as another reflection mechanism, depositing massive quantities of iron filings into the oceans, painting streets and roofs white and adding lime to oceans.Experts suggested that the documents, leaked from inside the IPPC to The Guardian, show how the UN and other developed countries are "despairing" about reaching agreement by consensus at the global climate change talks.But the newspaper reported that scientists admit that even if the ideas theoretically work, they could cause irreversible consequences.Source: The Telegraph

Ocean life on Brink of extinction